Art Quotes - Page 40

• As a matter of history great developments in art have often been remarkably separate from religious motivation and use.

  Ruth Benedict

  Religious, Motivation, Use

  Ruth Benedict (1973). “Patterns of Culture”, p.63, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• A life is not sufficiently elevated for poetry, unless, of course, the life has been made into an art.

  Mark Strand

  Life Is, Made, Courses

  "In the Presence of America: A Conversation with Mark Strand". Interview with Katharine Coles, weberstudies.weber.edu. 1992.

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• The literary critic, or the critic of any other specific form of artistic expression, may detach himself from the world for as long as the work of art he is contemplating appears to do the same.

  Clive James

  Expression, Long, Criticism

  Clive James (1983). “Glued to the box: television criticism from the Observer, 1979-82”, Jonathan Cape

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• It is my conviction that the public always shows itself more honest in its spontaneity than do those who officially set themselves up as judges of works of art.

  Igor Stravinsky

  Judging, Criticism, Honest

  Igor Stravinsky (1970). “Poetics of Music in the Form of Six Lessons”, p.87, Harvard University Press

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• Is it the obligation of great art to be continually interesting? I think not.

  Susan Sontag

  Thinking, Interesting, Obligation

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• In a culture whose already classical dilemma is the hypertrophy of the intellect at the expense of energy and sensual capability, interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art.

  Susan Sontag

  Revenge, Sensual, Criticism

  Susan Sontag (2014). “A Susan Sontag Reader”, p.149, Macmillan

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• Interpretation, based on the highly dubious theory that a work of art is composed of items of content, violates art. It makes art into an article for use, for arrangement into a mental scheme of categories.

  Susan Sontag

  Criticism, Dubious, Use

  Susan Sontag (1983). “A Susan Sontag reader”, Vintage

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• Self-exposure is commendable in art only when it is of a quality and complexity that allows other people to learn about themselves from it.

  Susan Sontag

  Self, People, Quality

  Susan Sontag (2013). “Against Interpretation and Other Essays”, p.150, Penguin UK

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• I was the executive editor on a little magazine called Greek Accent, whose only claim to fame is that its art director went on to be the art director of Discover for many years.

  Jane Haddam

  Years, Editors, Greek

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• Essential characteristic of the really great novelist: a Christ-like, all-embracing compassion.

  Arnold Bennett

  Book, Reading, Writing

  1896 Journal entry,15 Oct.

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• If I'd have gone to art school, or stayed in anthropology, I probably would have ended up back in film ... Mostly I just followed my inner feelings and passions ... and kept going to where it got warmer and warmer, until it finally got hot ... Everybody has talent. It's just a matter of moving around until you've discovered what it is.

  George Lucas

  Moving, Passion, School

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• Literature is not exhaustible, for the sufficient and simple reason that a single book is not. A book is not an isolated entity: it is a narration, an axis of innumerable narrations. One literature differs from another, either before or after it, not so much because of the text as for the manner in which it is read.

  Jorge Luis Borges

  Book, Simple, Axes

  "Other Inquisitions". Book by Jorge Luis Borges, 1952.

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• To arrange a library is to practice in a quiet and modest way the art of criticism.

  Jorge Luis Borges

  Inspirational, Practice, Criticism

  Jorge Luis Borges, Adolfo Bioy Casares (1973). “Extraordinary tales”, International Specialized Book Services

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• The art of writing is mysterious; the opinions we hold are ephemeral , and I prefer the Platonic idea of the Muse to that of Poe, who reasoned, or feigned to reason, that the writing of a poem is an act of the intelligence. It never fails to amaze me that the classics hold a romantic theory of poetry, and a romantic poet a classical theory.

  Jorge Luis Borges

  Writing, Ideas, Ephemeral

  Jorge Luis Borges (1978). “Doctor Brodie's Report”, Plume Books

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• It is worth remembering that every writer begins with a naively physical notion of what art is. A book for him or her is not an expression or a series of expressions, but literally a volume, a prism with six rectangular sides made of thin sheets of papers which should include a cover, an inside cover, an epigraph in italics, a preface, nine or ten parts with some verses at the beginning, a table of contents, an ex libris with an hourglass and a Latin phrase, a brief list of errata, some blank pages, a colophon and a publication notice: objects that are known to constitute the art of writing.

  Jorge Luis Borges

  Latin, Book, Writing

  "Evaristo Carriego" by Jorge Luis Borges, (Ch. 3), 1930.

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• Chance acquaintances are sometimes the most memorable, for brief friendships have such definite starting and stopping points that they take on a quality of art, of a whole thing, which cannot be broken or spoiled.

  William Saroyan

  Memorable, Broken, Quality

  William Saroyan (1984). “The New Saroyan Reader: A Connoisseur's Anthology of the Writings of William Saroyan”, Creative Arts Book Company

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• The art of advertising - untruthfulness combined with repetition.

  Freya Stark

  Untruthfulness, Advertising, Repetition

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• First move me, astonish me, break my heart, let me tremble, weep, stare, be enraged-only then regale my eyes.

  Denis Diderot

  Moving, Eye, Firsts

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• Art ... is a force which blows the roof off the cave where we crouch imprisoned.

  Ernest Hello

  Blow, Caves, Force

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• Of late years (perhaps as a result of our political changes) art has borrowed from history more than ever.

  Alfred de Vigny

  Years, Political, Results

  Alfred de Vigny (1923). “Cinq Mars”

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• Leisure was the sine qua non of the full Renaissance. The feudal nobility, having lost its martial function, sought diversion all over Europe in cultivated pastimes: sonneteering, the lute, games and acrostics, travel, gentlemanly studies and sports, hunting and hawking, treated as arts.

  Mary McCarthy

  Sports, Hunting, Europe

  Mary McCarthy (1956). “Venice observed”

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• I think that those of us who are what are called intellectuals make a terrible mistake in overvaluing the yen we have for the arts, books, etc. There is a sweet, fine quality in life that has nothing to do with this, and more and more I find myself valuing myself with those people.

  Sherwood Anderson

  Sweet, Mistake, Book

  Sherwood Anderson (1953). “Letters: selected and edited with an introd. and notes by Howard Mumford Jones, in association with Walter B. Rideout”

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• The manner in which Americans ''consume'' music has a lot to do with leaving it on their coffee tables, or using it as wallpaper for their lifestyles, like the score of a movie --it's consumed that way without any regard for how and why it's made.

  Frank Zappa

  Movie, Music, Coffee

  Frank Zappa, Peter Occhiogrosso (1990). “Real Frank Zappa Book”, p.224, Simon and Schuster

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• Believe it or not, there are places in the world where music is important. There are places in the world where all the arts are a matter of national pride.

  Frank Zappa

  Music, Believe, Pride

  Frank Zappa, Peter Occhiogrosso (1990). “Real Frank Zappa Book”, p.160, Simon and Schuster

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• I'm very hard on the art world just being a big business.

  Duane Michals

  World, Just Being, Bigs

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